The invention relates to air cleaners, including underhood air cleaners for a vehicle having an internal combustion engine in an engine compartment covered by a hood, and more particularly to a low profile outlet duct and connection.
In a vehicle having an internal combustion engine in an engine compartment covered by a hood, clean filtered air from the air cleaner is typically routed to the engine via an assembly of tubing consisting of various materials. Often metal tubing, blow molded plastic, or rotationally molded plastic ducting is routed with a number of rubber elbows or cuffs hose-clamped to the ducting to connect and seal the joints. Recent systems include dual durometer blow molded ducting, in which the material composition of the duct is varied throughout its length from a soft elastomeric material on the ends for sealing, to hard plastic material in between for rigidity. Hose clamps are used on each end to seal the duct onto the outlet of the air cleaner and to the inlet of the engine. The air cleaner outlet tube typically has at least about one inch engagement length engaging the outlet duct in overlapping telescoped relation to enable clamping of the outlet duct thereto. In some applications, particularly the noted underhood environment, space limitations require that the outlet duct from the air cleaner be as compact as possible. This often leaves no room for hose clamps and other methods of attachment
The present invention addresses the noted space limitation requirement for connecting the outlet duct to the air cleaner, and provides a simple and effective solution. In addition to space savings, the invention also eliminates the need for hose clamps, O-ring seals, gaskets, extraneous hardware, and the use of an elastomeric type cuff or elbow typically required when connecting outlet ducting to an underhood air cleaner.